Acai Berry Scam Wrap-up

A final wrap-up comment about my experience with the Acai Berry purchase that put me back over $150 (unauthorized). After notifying Consumer Protection of the deceptive practices, I notified the company by email that I had issued a formal complaint against them for debiting my account $89.13 and guess what? They actually credited me $87.00!! To say the least, I was elated. I did not expect to see the money again. In all fairness, I updated my original complaint with Consumer Protection to let them know the company reimbursed me. I love it when a story has a happy ending. :-)

Continuation of Acai Berry Purchase Deception

Continued from my previous post, I was $156 in the hole from what I thought was a $4.00 S&H charge for a free trial of Acai Berry and Bromalite cleanse formula.  It was quite a shock, as you can well imagine, that these companies had charged my account for that additional amount 20 days or so after I ordered the stuff.  What I've learned since then is that many unknowing customers have done the same thing and apparently had all kinds of heck getting reimbursed, with very few succeeding at all.   I went back to my browser history to re-trace my steps when I ordered this stuff so I could see the error of my ways.  I had been reading about fasting because it was the first part of May and I wanted to fast the week before National Prayer day.  I had always talked about fasting with prayer because I knew it to be powerful and very energizing physically and emotionally.  While searching, I came upon a website/blog that was titled rachelraysplan.com  Well, of course, if Rachel Ray had a detox / fast that was healthy, who could argue?  Gee, she's well-known and trusted, right?   As I was reading the blog, however, I realized it was primarily written by a girl by the name of Jillian Rogers of Houston.  There are "before and after" pictures of this alleged Ms. Rogers and all kinds of praise for this company that GIVES a FREE TRIAL of the Acai Berry and Bromalite supplements.  In fact, she was sure to let readers know that there were only a few days left to get them for just the cost of shipping!  (amazingly, there are still that many days left when I returned to the site almost 5 weeks later).  This blog even had many "testimonials" from "readers" who said they had ordered their free trial with great results and no hassles from the company.  Gee, I was a believer! (isn't that what they want you to be?)  The rub is that if these people were ripped off for $156 like I was, I doubt seriously that their testimonials OR Ms. Jilian Rogers were legitimate. (grrrrr)  Sorry, I digress...

Yep, I clicked on the link to the acaiberrydetox.com site.  Bigger than Dallas (or even Texas for that matter), it says FREE TRIAL for $4.00 or something along those lines.  After getting "robbed" of $150 plus about three weeks later, I learned through rippedoff.com and other consumer complaint websites that many others went through the same experience.  I also learned that you can file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov  I did that by filling out a long form with all of my information, the business information, and a short synopsis of what took place.  In the mean time, I contacted my bank and deactivated my debit/credit card.  I also contacted the business and in very business-like terms, informed them that they were to cancel my account, send me confirmation of the cancellation, and to credit my money back to my account as I was dissatisfied and disheartened by their deceptive practices.

I also told them I had filed a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

They must be somewhat familiar with the process, because in contrast to the other customer reports I had read, I received a reply immediately that the company would credit my account and remove my name from their data base.  We shall see if they make good their promise, but I was at least satisfied to get a reply.  All this took me several days of research, documenting, phone calls, and aggravation.  If this saves any of you some steps or trouble along the way, it was worth writing this down!  If you have any similar experiences or comments, I welcome them.  Oh, and I'll let you know if my checking account looks $150 richer soon....:-)